His character ﷺ

What the Qur’an says

The Qur’an speaks of his character before those who saw him ﷺ live:

It also says where his gentleness ﷺ comes from, and what it produced:

A man asked Aisha what his character was. She answered: “Do you not read the Qur’an?” He said yes. “The character of the Prophet of God ﷺ was the Qur’an” (Muslim 746).

Gentleness

Anas ibn Malik, placed in his service on his arrival in Medina (Bukhari 6911), summed up those years in one sentence: “I served the Prophet ﷺ for ten years. He never said ‘uff’ to me, nor ‘why did you do that?’, nor ‘why did you not do that?’” (Bukhari 6038).

He also tells of a day when he behaved like a child. Sent on an errand, he said he would not go, though he fully meant to, and he went out. He was passing some children playing in the market when a hand took him by the nape of the neck: the Prophet ﷺ was laughing. “Little Anas, did you go where I sent you?” (Muslim 2310).

The same gentleness shows in public scenes:

• A Bedouin urinates in the mosque. People rise against him. “Do not interrupt him”, says the Prophet ﷺ, and he has a bucket of water poured over it (Bukhari 6025).
• Another Bedouin catches up with him and pulls his cloak so hard that its border marks his shoulder: “O Muhammad, order that I be given some of the wealth of God that you hold.” He turns, laughs, and orders that he be given something (Bukhari 5809).
• A creditor speaks harshly to him. His Companions make to set upon him. “Leave him: the one who has a right may speak.” And he has him repaid with something better (Bukhari 2306).
• Some Jews greet him with a word that means “death upon you”. Aisha returns the insult. “Gently, Aisha: God loves gentleness in all things.” He had answered, he says: “And upon you” (Bukhari 6024).

He ﷺ would say: “Make things easy, do not make them hard; give good tidings, do not drive people away” (Bukhari 69). Abd Allah ibn Amr testifies that he was neither coarse nor given to coarseness, and that he used to say: “The best of you are those with the best character” (Bukhari 6035).

Forgiveness, when he ﷺ had the upper hand

Aisha states the rule: “Whenever he had to choose between two things, he took the easier, so long as it was no sin; if it was one, he kept further from it than anyone. And he never took revenge for himself, except when something God had made sacred was violated: then he took revenge for God” (Bukhari 3560).

The facts confirm it.

After Ta’if. Aisha asks him whether he has known a day harder than Uhud. He ﷺ tells of the one when Ibn Abd Yalil rejected him, and he walked on, overwhelmed, not seeing where he was going. The angel of the mountains offered to bring the two mountains of Mecca together upon his people. “No: I hope that God will bring forth from their loins people who will worship God alone, associating nothing with Him” (Bukhari 3231).

Under the tree. Returning from an expedition, he ﷺ sleeps under a tree, his sword hanging from it. He wakes: a Bedouin holds that sword, drawn, before him. “Who will protect you from me?” “God”, he answers, three times. He does not punish him (Bukhari 2910).

The prisoner. Thumama ibn Uthal, of the Banu Hanifa, is brought in captive and tied to a pillar of the mosque. On the third day, the Prophet ﷺ has him freed, without condition. Thumama washes, comes back, and declares himself a Muslim: “By God, there was no face on earth more hateful to me than yours. Now it has become the dearest of all to me” (Bukhari 4372).

The poison. At Khaybar, a Jewish woman offers him ﷺ a poisoned ewe. He eats of it. She is brought to him: “Shall we not kill her?” “No” (Bukhari 2617). Other accounts say she was put to death when a Companion, Bishr ibn al-Bara, died of that meal (Abu Dawud 4512, graded good and authentic by al-Albani). Al-Bayhaqi and al-Suhayli reconcile them thus: he left her alone at first, because he did not take revenge for himself, then she was put to death for Bishr (Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari, VII, 497).

Mecca. He ﷺ enters in victory the city that drove him out. He had ordered that only those who fought be fought, except for a few named men (Ibn Hisham, II, 409), and he proclaimed: “Whoever enters the house of Abu Sufyan is safe, whoever lays down his weapons is safe, whoever shuts his door is safe” (Muslim 1780). Ibn Ishaq reports, from a scholar he does not name, the scene that has stayed in memory: “What do you think I am going to do with you?” “Good: a noble brother, son of a noble brother.” “Go, you are free” (Ibn Hisham, II, 412). The account of the conquest is in From Badr to Tabuk.

Asked to curse the polytheists, he ﷺ answered: “I was not sent to curse; I was sent only as a mercy” (Muslim 2599).

His modesty, his anger ﷺ

“He was more modest than a virgin in her seclusion”, says Abu Sa’id (Bukhari 6102).

He ﷺ was not, for all that, without anger, and the witnesses do not hide it. Someone complains of an imam who makes the dawn prayer so long that he has come to hold back from it. Abu Mas’ud never saw him angrier: “There are some among you who drive people away. Whoever leads the prayer, let him keep it short: behind him are the weak, the old and the one with business to attend to” (Bukhari 704). One sees it: his anger went to wrongs done to people and to the religion, not to what was done to him. “The strong man is not the one who throws others down”, he used to say; “the strong man is the one who masters himself in anger” (Bukhari 6114).

Aisha attests it with a fact: “He never struck with his hand either a woman or a servant, except when fighting in the path of God” (Muslim 2328).

Courage

Anas sums it up thus: “The Prophet ﷺ was the most beautiful of men, the most generous and the most courageous.” One night, Medina takes fright at a noise. People set out towards it, and they see the Prophet ﷺ coming back, having got there before them, on a horse with no saddle, his sword at his neck: “Do not be afraid, do not be afraid” (Bukhari 6033).

At Hunayn, when the archers of Hawazin take his men by surprise and many fall back, he ﷺ stays on his white mule and says: “I am the Prophet, that is no lie; I am the son of Abd al-Muttalib” (Bukhari 2864).

Generosity

“He was the most generous of men, and even more so in Ramadan, when Gabriel met him to recite the Qur’an with him. He was then more generous than the wind sent forth” (Ibn Abbas, Bukhari 6).

“Never was he asked for anything to which he said no”, says Jabir (Bukhari 6034). A man received from him a flock that filled a valley between two mountains. He went back to his people and said to them: “My people, embrace Islam: Muhammad ﷺ gives like one who has no fear of poverty” (Muslim 2312).

Humility

He ﷺ forbade excessive praise: “Do not exalt me as the Christians exalted the son of Mary” (Bukhari 3445). He helped at home (Bukhari 676). “A slave girl of Medina could take him by the hand and lead him wherever she wished”, says Anas (Bukhari 6072).

A woman whose mind was troubled told him ﷺ she needed him. “Mother of so-and-so, choose whichever street you like, and I will see to your need.” He stayed with her in the street until she had finished (Muslim 2326).

Objections and their answers

“These portraits come from his disciples.” They do, in large part. But the clearest portrait of a man without lie or betrayal comes from his adversary, Abu Sufyan, before Heraclius (Bukhari 7). And these same disciples transmitted the verses that correct him ﷺ, such as the one where he turns away from a blind man (80:1-10): no one keeps such things when inventing a perfect man (The testimony of his person).

“A warlord cannot be gentle.” His Companions do not hide the fighting: Aisha excepts combat from what she attests (Muslim 2328). His gentleness ﷺ is that of a man who commanded, judged and fought, and who did not use that power for himself. The battles are told in From Badr to Tabuk, and the objection about power has its own page: “He wanted power, or wealth”.

How this page connects to the others

• His face ﷺ: His portrait.
• His way of speaking: His speech, his laughter, his tears.
• His conduct with each person: With people.

Sources for this page

• Qur’an: Tanzil text (Uthmani); translation of the meaning by this site.
• Hadiths: Bukhari 6, 7, 69, 676, 704, 2306, 2617, 2864, 2910, 3231, 3445, 3560, 4372, 5809, 6024, 6025, 6033, 6034, 6035, 6038, 6072, 6102, 6114, 6911; Muslim 746, 1780, 2310, 2312, 2326, 2328, 2599; Abu Dawud 4512.
• Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-nabawiyya, II, 409, 412.
• Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari, VII, 497.